S.P.GOYAL,J. - (1.) THIS judgment will dispose of seven Income-tax References Nos. 30 to 32 of 1975 and 46 to 49 of 1975 as they involve a common question. References Nos. 30 to 32 relate to the Punjab Warehousing Corporation and the remaining to the Haryana Warehousing Corporation. The assessment years in case of the Punjab Warehousing Corporation are 1969-70, 1970-71 and 1971-72 whereas in the case of the Haryana Warehousing Corporation are 1968-69 to 1971-72.
(2.) THESE warehousing corporations were established under Section 18 (1) of the Warehousing Corporations Act, 1962, by notifications of the respective Governments of Punjab and Haryana. The assessee-corporations were assessed to income-tax on the income derived by them from the letting of their godowns during each year of account under consideration by the Income-tax Officer and the plea of exemption under Section 10 (29) of the Income-tax Act (hereinafter called " the Act") was rejected. The order of assessment was upheld on appeal by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. However, the Appellate Tribunal, relying on U. P. Slate Warehousing Corporation v. Income-tax Officer [1974] 94 ITR 129 (All) allowed the appeals of the assessees, but referred the following question to this court at the instance of the revenue : " Whether, on the facts and circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was right in law in holding that the assessee was within the meaning of Section 10 (29), Income-tax Act, an authority and that that authority had baen constituted for the marketing of commodities ? " The answer to the question entirely depends on the interpretation of Clause (29) of Section 10 of the Act which reads as under : "10. Incomes not included in total income.--In computing the total income of a previous year of any person, any income falling within any of the following clauses shall not be included- -. . . . . . (29) in the case of an authority constituted under any law for the time being in force for the marketing of commodities, any income derived from the letting of godowns or warehouses for storage, processing or facilitating the marketing of commodities. "
(3.) THE challenge against the applicability of the exemption contained in this clause is two-fold, viz. , that the assessee-corporations are not an " authority " within the meaning of this term as used in the said clause and that they have not been constituted for the marketing of commodities. As noticed above, identical matter concerning U. P. State Warehousing Corporation's case [1974] 94 ITR 129, came up before a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court and Satish Chandra J. , in a very elaborate judgment, after taking into consideration the dictionary meaning of the term and other aspects, held that any legal entity or juristic personality codstituted by law for the purposes of marketing commodities would be an authority within the meaning of Section 10 (29] of the Act and the warehousing corporation having been established under an Act of Parliament was an. "authority" constituted under a law.;